Train travel advice

[AndyP & Lenore]

Looking to make a trip down to Peterborough area in a couple of weeks. We were looking at The Trainline.Com (http://www.thetrainline.com) for prices and to book.

Prices ranged from £100 pp to £800 pp for return journey. WTF!!!!

Is it still possible to just jump on the train at Berwick Upon Tweed station, find a non-booked seat, pay the conductor when he comes-a-knockin' then get off in Peterborough (changing trains where required)? And if so is this much cheaper? Do we risk getting to Berwick station to be told "Sorry. Full up.... get the next one!"?

Any help would be appreciated.

DUNCAN, Where are you????:confused:

A.:confused:

[Gismo]

Andy, no such thing as full up on a train, you either get a seat or you don't and if ya don't you stand.
You can prebook a seat, but, i think that costs ya money.
Yes, you can just jump on the train and pay, but, you could also pay at the station prior to departure

[AndyP & Lenore]

Andy, no such thing as full up on a train, you either get a seat or you don't and if ya don't you stand.
You can prebook a seat, but, i think that costs ya money.
Yes, you can just jump on the train and pay, but, you could also pay at the station prior to departure

Cheers Alan,

And if we pay at the station, will that be significantly cheaper? Even the £100 pp return ticket price seemed very pricey to me.

[sedgie]

Have you tried booking with GNER direct...sometimes you find cheap tickets. The way i do it is to buy 2 singles rather than a return.

[The Dogfather]

Andy, sometimes booking separate singles works out cheaper than a return. Oops just read the post above :o

[zimbo]

Train, TRAIN!!! what are those???? :D you'll never find me on one of them.

Just take a nice leasurely drive down Andy, you know you want to...

[AndyP & Lenore]

Cheers for the advice guys.

Single tickets booked. Much cheapness. Very happy.

A.;)

[KenL]

The price of train travel in this country is a total joke.

My wife and I went to Carnoustie for the golf this year. It cost ~£9 in petrol in the Aygo and £10 to park the car. Would have cost £78 on the train.
A similar length journey in Belgium (Brussels to Brugges) return cost 5Euros or 7Euros for first class, each.

No wonder nobody uses public transport in this country :mad:

[The Dogfather]

That and the fact you might end up sitting next to AndyP if you're unlucky

[AndyP & Lenore]

That and the fact you might end up sitting next to AndyP if you're unlucky

Very scary thought.:eek:

I smell bad, and have the most annoying habit of using whatever shoulder is next to me to rest my head on whenever I sleep.

A.:D

[duncan]

Sorry, been busy fitting my kitchen today.

As for rail travel, I really don't know for sure, as I travel for free ;) although I have bought tickets for my folks in the past.

Singles are a good way to pay, although, the down side is you have to get the specific train you're booked on, or you'll get excessed, or made to buy the Standard Open ticket. Mucho expensive.

Another way is buying multiple single tickets for the one journey.
As an example, Dundee to Glasgow is cheaper if you buy a Dundee to Perth ticket, then a Perth to Glasgow ticket. The main condition is the train MUST stop at that station.

The best deal I got recently was £29 for the sleeper from Dundee to London, and returning on GNER First Class for £45. This was all booking well in advence.

Don't get me started on the way the railways are in this country. Its a total shambles.

[AndyP & Lenore]

That's what we found Duncan. We have a need to travel to Stevenage, so to book a straight trip from Berwick Upon Tweed to Stevenage (no changes) was a cost of about £200. But if we opted for going from Berwick to Peterborough, changing at Peterborough and getting a local service to Hitchin (5 miles from Stevenage) it was a total cost of £42 for the two of us. Out of interest, the GNER train goes through Hitchin (doesn't stop) and Stevenage (does stop). But at £200, we'll get a lift from Hitchin thank you very much.:rolleyes:

Haven't travelled by train for a long time, and TBH, based on the booking experience alone, it seems an overly complex process these days.

A.:D

[euan]

Haven't travelled by train for a long time, and TBH, based on the booking experience alone, it seems an overly complex process these days.

A.:D

I think part of the reason it's so complicated is that the train companies don't seem to work together. It's a real mess. The sooner that they realise this the better, though not convinced they will as they would lose out in the short term by people getting the cheaper tickets. However, they would likely make more in the longer term as people would travel by train more.

Your experience with booking tickets doesn't surprise me in the slightest, it's the one thing that budget airlines got sorted from the offset and have made it easy for people. The train companies would do well to look at it.

I don't mind train travel, but in the UK it's horrid. European train travel - now that's a different game altogether! It's cheap, very efficient and much faster. I was as quick to get back to London from Germany when i went to the World Cup as my mate was flying on Ryanair.

As an aside, there has been huge amounts of press and complaints about the new St Pancras station - they haven't done much for cyclists apparently. I've not been there yet, but you'd have thought they would have considered it!

[Duncan Stewart]

Went down to Peterborough on the train this summer - all the way, no changes on GNER in a nice refurbished train for £30 from Leuchars. Great way to travel at a good price - enjoy the trip Andy :D
Mind you the over priced, over crowded trains at rush hour into Edinburgh are a different matter :(

[Gismo]

I'll most likely be going to Penrith this week on the rail service to get Wee Dougie, so, expensive coffee for me to buy